Seeking Recovery Tips after PPH

[Cassius2]

Hey knowledgeable ladies (and lads!) I am after all your super recovery tips after a post partum hemorrhage.

I have just been discharged after a secondary PPH and feel like i have been hit by a truck! So far i have been sent home with ABs, so have bought probiotics and yakult. how many probiotics can you take per day? (i have the inner health ones).

i have been told to rest, this will be tricky with 3 kidlets...

So the big question is: what else did you guys do to help recover? (even diet wise, for example)

[Olive]

Hugs darl, I had a PPH after birth and required two unit of blood to be transfused, I also felt like I'd been hit by a truck .
I struggled for a long time after, it didnt help that I had no appetite. I took Spatones liquid iron and rested as much as I could ( which wasn't that often ). I hope you feel better soon
Xxx

[PumpkinZulu]

Soooo much red meat. I had a PPH at 5 days PP, not as big as yours though, and I felt like crap for weeks and weeks after. Iron iron iron. And fibre Spinach too. Loads of water, and vitamin c to help absorb the iron.

[lady_neon]

I felt like death, plus had the stress of my baby in NICU. I was on iron supplements and the hospital had me on iron rich meals for my stay. Honestly all you can really do is rest.

[~TT40~]

eat all those green leafy vegies - broccoli, spinach, parsley. have vit c with it - capsicum, oranges, it will help you absorb the iron. and caffeine inhibits iron absorption, so try and avoid it (about ban hour either side).

in terms of supplements they say the liquid iron is better than the tablets - doesn't make you as clogged up. but if you are on iron tablets I would also take something like metimucil or movicol so you don't get constipated, especially after having a baby.

placenta is brilliant for this sort of thing, but not always an option

it can take 6months for you to get your stores back up to what they would be at normally.

umm...rest? what is that? =P try and take care of yourself, so you can then look after your babies.

[Ryatha]

My mum fed me walnuts, and other nuts but mainly them. And I had lots of lactation cookies to help my milk supply. And iron, in food and supplements.

Rest, lots if water and a healthy diet.

[onthefly]

I found a blood transfusion very helpful! Took liquid iron supplements for several months and took it easy for a few weeks. I think it took 3-4 weeks to feel ok again. I hope you manage a bit of rest!

[Khaleesi]

Depending on your iron levels, an iron infusion can be helpful.

I've had 2 now & a part from resting when you can & getting iron into you there isn't much that will help.

[Cassius2]

so I take it rest is the key oh gosh this is going to be hard as DH starts back at work today...great timing...

i do have my placenta pills to take, but have to wait for the infection to pass (PPH was due to infection in uterus). so will get back on those babies in 10 days hopefully.

I have both liquid iron and iron tabs. maybe it is a good idea to go on the hard core ones for this first week and then back to the floradix one later?

the lactation cookies are a good idea. my supply has dropped off, but i do tend to have oversupply in normal times so might wait out a week and see how that goes.

i dont have much of an appetite at all ATM which is sooo not like me, so will have to choose what i eat well to get the most iron. but now that you mention capsicum that is all i want

thanks guys for these tips! i feel so flat out with the pill popping regime (for the infection) and worn out by the PPH and a very sad baby with a crook belly from the ABs.

Another quick question...

with probiotics and antibiotics...when do you take the probiotic? do you take it at the same time or wait a bit between the two...so one at breakfast and then the probiotic an hour or two later? or doesnt make a difference??

[RhiChiChi]

Whereabouts in Melbourne are you hun? If you are near me I can drop in and help you out x

[Trillian]

bone broth is super awesome for rebuilding iron and blood stores as well. Don't take the probiotics with citrus though, kinda cancels out the good effect they have and avoid caffeine for the same reason. Depending on how bad it was, I really would have been pushing for a transfusion because otherwise it can take months and when you have 3 kids and minimal support at home (in terms of a husband who works so you can't rest as much as you need to) it just makes it seem that much harder and take longer to get you back to 100%. I had a transfusion after mine and I still felt wrecked for a good few weeks afterwards and still needed heavy doses of iron for about 8 weeks. Coupled with you having an infection, there is just so much going on in your body right now that it's not going to be easy.

[Olive]

id take the probiotics a few hours after the ab's

i dont know how i would have been had i not had a transfusion

[AnyDream]

When I had my big surgery, the naturopath I was seeing got me to take probiotics on an empty stomach, esp first thing in the morning. If you add in a prebiotic like bovine colustrum or even some inulin (benefibre) that will help the probiotics enormously. But if you're already taking other pills and potions it can be a but of a juggle getting everything in, so of you aim for a couple of times a day but only take them once it will still help. Xxx

[BellyBelly]

I agree with the green leafy vegies, eating too much red meat can have negative health effects too. Green leafies are a great source of readily absorbable iron. Floradix is what many midwives recommend as an iron supplement to low iron pre-natal women, it doesn't have the yucko side effects (like constipation) and absorbs well. You don't need loads of iron if its in a readily absorbable form. When I had really low iron in early pregnancy, the naturopath at the health food store said many practitioners are now having patients combine two different iron supplements as it seems to work better. So I also got the spatone liquid iron in combination of the most potent iron supplements Nicole Tracy, BB's naturopath had on hand. She does phone consults and posts out orders if you're interested in getting her sending you some good stuff. Probiotics - I think Yakult really is the bottom of the barrel as far as probiotics goes and contains sugar (its really sweet!), which yeast feeds on. Its also only one strain of probiotic - there are many and they all serve different functions. There are much better brands out there, again Nicole can send you out the good stuff.

[Cassius2]

ok, i better get nicole on the phone. must.not.get.boob.thrush!

i think a trip to my local health foodstore is in order too...they have ginormous supplement section on hand and yummy greens.

i am so down about my cruisy journey taking a detour

[AngelPants]

I also find fenugreek great, it increases my appetite really well so if you are struggling with that maybe try it.

[Jennifer13]

Don't forget to ask about a probiotic for bubs too, since she'll be getting the ABs through your milk. Might help to stop the thrush developing at her end too.

Hope you feel better soon. What a rotten thing to happen right now.

[Cassius2]

My IM did mention the probiotics for bubs. i spoke to the pharmacist and of course they havent heard of it but dont think there would be an issue to give the inner health kids, just werent able to tell me quantities. i think i will have to see the naturopath and see if they can do up one for her...gosh, keep forgetting to call Nicole!